Click on a part of this diagramatic map, with north upward, to see each
plate, embracing both sides of the street. You will notice that the inscription
"Chestnut Street" appears upside-down. As bound, oddly enough,
Rae generally placed south at the top of the page and moved from east to
west, following the enumeration of the number streets, but pretty much the
opposite of the orientation one might expect from a map. One might think
this hinted at a preeminence for stores on the southern side of the street,
but it was more likely his solution to the matter of getting his book to
read continuously and naturally from left to right. More
detailed views of each blockfront are hotlinked to the plates linked above,
and also to the plate inventories linked below, with half of each original
plate given at about 400 pixels tall, occurring in the sequence they follow
in the volume -- but we will reorient things there gravitationally as needed.

[Note: All Rae panoramas available for viewing on this site were obtained from the Philadelphia Athenaeum.]